I Did Not Know...

That I could eat too little.

I mean I knew it's physically possible to starve myself, but I did not know that I was capable of eating so little that my body refused to lose weight. That is what appeared to happen over the last month. I have kept using myfitnesspal.com and have been pretty good about sticking to it. There were a couple days at the end of the school year that I gave myself permission to over my calories for the end of the year party and such. But for the most part I have down well keeping with my calorie count.

I was getting frustrated that my weight was staying at 90 pounds down, and I started to seek advice. I spoke with my friends, Matt and Erin, and they asked about my calorie target. I was still scheduled to lose two pounds a week and my "activity level" was still set at sedentary. My goal was 1920 per day. "Dude, that's low," Matt responded. We discussed that now that it was summer, and I am more active that I need to adjust my activity level and switch from two pounds, to one and a half pounds per week. I made these adjustments and my calorie goal increased to 2660 per day. I was skeptical that this would lead to weight loss, but I dove in head first. I increased my breakfast size, and dinner size and added another snack in the day. It only took four days for my body to start burning calories at a higher rate and I saw results. I have lost another three pounds since the change and I can feel my body getting back on the losing track. Interesting eh?

Oh, and for those of you that are not Facebook friends, I hiked Wallace Falls to the third level last week. It's was a big deal for me as I have not down that in 8 years. This week I am going to attempt Lake Serene on Mt Index. Wish me luck!

What Happened To War?

I know it wasn't just me. Many comics have bits about it. One of my favorite bits about it is from John Heffron. He was talking about how times have changed. When he was a kid, his Dad would come home from working the night shift at 7am and kick the kids out of the house. No one would check on them, look for them, there was no Amber Alert and the kids just played all day. The first time his Dad would see him again was at 10pm when he went back in the house.
"You in for the night?" his Dad asked.
"Nope. Just grabbing flash lights."

I remember these summer days. Walk to the store in the morning to grab snacks for the day. And by snacks I mean Lemon Heads, Jolly Ranchers, Air Heads and my favorite Fun Dips! Then build a jump in the afternoon for our bikes, skateboards and scooters. As sunset rolled around it was some type of game. Football, whiffle ball, tag or the ever deadly, Red Rover.

After the sun went down was the real fun. WAR! We broke into teams, set up bases(or safety spots for the wusses like me), gathered ammo(pine cones and flash lights) and the war was on! If you got hit with one pine cone, you were wounded but a team member could get you back to base to be "fixed." Hit twice with a pine cone before being fixed and you were out. If someone from the other team was close enough to shine a flash light in your face without you wounding them or shining them, you were out.

We played for hours! We changed up teams to be fair, but I think my brothers and friends just wanted to trade me around so one team was not stuck with me the whole time. As long as the neighbors did not call to complain about us and Saturday Night Live was still on, Mom watched it each week, we played past mid-night.

What happened to that game? Who wants to burn some calories playing WAR?

Stigmatize the Obese?

This is a summary of a column written in The Sunday Times, in London. Original author is Rod Little. I would love to hear your thoughts on what he has to say.
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I get that times have changed, said Rod Little. "In my school days, every class I was in had one fat kid, whom everyone bullied until he cried, and that was it." Nowadays, of course, skinny kids aren't supposed to make fun of their heavier classmates, and perhaps that's for the better. But why not mock the grown ups? National health authorities have just issued new guidelines telling doctors "not to use the word 'obese' when delivering advice to the sweating mountains of compacted lard" that waddle into their offices. Evidently "obese" is seen as a derogatory term that might hurt people's feelings. Don't they realize that's the kind of kick we all need? I'm overweight, and once, after a local polish man called me a fat slob, I was so mortified I took to the treadmill for six grueling weeks. Maybe "if I were stigmatized a bit more regularly , I might get down to the gym more often, or cut out the wine." In fact, if we remove the stigma from obesity, what's to prevent us from succumbing to the siren song of KFC? It's far too easy to avoid the truth if nobody calls you fat to your face.

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